Digital Ad Spending Forecast To Jump

2017 Spending Predicted To Be Over $61 Billion

Spending on digital media advertising in the United States will increase 45% by 2017. That's one of the central findings of a new study from eMarketer that forecasts ad spending trends over the next four years. Overall, digital ad revenue will rise from a predicted $42.3 billion in 2013 to $61.4 billion in 2017. Within the digital subcategory of mobile, ad spending will rise from $1.6 billion in 2011 to $31.1 billion in 2017 – a 1,844% increase. "Mobile is expected to account for 15.8% of all ad spending by 2017," eMarketer reports.

This year, total spending on paid media will reach $171.01 billion, a 3.6% jump over 2012. Growth accelerated faster last year – a 4.3% rise over 2011 – due to cash injections generated by the Summer Olympics and the national election season. Helped along by the Winter Olympics, FIFA World Cup and midterm elections, spending on advertising will rise nearly 4% in 2014 to $177.76 billion, eMarketer predicts.

Through 2017, television will continue to earn the bulk of advertising dollars. This year, television will rake in $66.4 billion, a number that will leap to $75.3 billion by 2017. Despite that dollar gain, the percentage of total paid media spending that television earns will drop slightly from 38.8% in 2013 to 38.2% four years from now. While eMarketer forecasts that magazine ad revenue will remain essentially flat over the next four years, paid media spending in newspapers will decline from $17.8 billion in 2013 to $16.1 billion in 2017.